Columbia County Parks, Recreation and Events and the Columbia County Convention and Visitors Bureau are thrilled to welcome the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Men’s Soccer National Championship May 4 – 10 at Blanchard Woods Park.
“We are thrilled to welcome the NAIA Men’s Soccer Championship to Columbia County”, said Shelly Blackburn, Executive Director of the Columbia County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Many of our local hospitality businesses are equally as excited as they rely heavily on the visitors that sporting events bring to the county. We are anticipating over 500 visitors from around the country coming to Columbia County. They will be staying in our hotels, eating in our restaurants and shopping in our retail establishment. We estimate the total economic impact for the events to be over $800,000.”
The following ten teams will be traveling a total of 7,604 miles to compete in Columbia County:
#1 Central Methodist (Mo.) #2 Oklahoma Wesleyan #3 Columbia (Mo.) #4 Missouri Valley #5 Keiser (Fl.) #6 Bellevue (Neb.) #7 Mid-America Christian (Okla.) #8 Cumberlands (Ky.) #9 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) #10 St. Thomas (Fl.)
Games will be played on May 4, 6 and 8 with the Championship game taking place Monday, May 10 at 7PM. The championship game will be televised on ESPN3.
If you would like to attend, tickets are now available for purchase here.